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Thanks to TopherHov who wrote in to mention a story on the Fox News site regarding gamers in the military, and the role that gaming plays for troops in the field. From the article: Games are as ubiquitous at Camp Fallujah and around it as tattoos, buzz cuts and shouts of "Hoorah" from one Marine to another. When the power goes out, a Humvee battery and a pair of alligator clips are all the resourceful gamer needs to resume the digitized fight.

. . . is the age range that covers well over 60% of the members of our armed forces. This age group is also the biggest target for the gaming industry. No suprize there's mad games being played by members of our armed forces. They are all people too.

At RTC Great Lakes our RDCs(Recruit Division Commanders) had us count down during PT, when we got to 5,4 we then called out the number for our division, then a distinctive Hoo-yah!

Then at "A" School there was someone who had done FMF(Fleet Marine Force, navy personnel assigned to the marines) duty as a corpsman who was crossrating(changing jobs), he always used "hoorah", from the audio in America's Army we know that they say Hoo-ah. As for the Air Force... no idea...

Actually, the problem with that is that David Grossman's [killology.com] arguments about video games have been that they are bad because they are used by the military. Therefore, more widely documented use of video games by the official military and by soldiers tends to reinforce his points, if you agree with his central premise. I don't personally agree with it, but the people on the pro-censorship side of the video game debate like to use it.

I knew a SGM once who insisted that it was "HUA, acronym, infantry, Head Up Ass!" He was a tanker, btw.

From my own observations, guys were playing the games as an escape from reality, so things like KOTOR were popular if we were anywhere near where we could have a console. Once we got to our second home-away-from-home south of Baghdad, it was pretty much limited to GameBoys and laptops. BTW, the most popular GameBoy title for quite a while was the Sims...

Only someone who served in the Army (let me guess, one term, service support, perhaps a maintenance or personnel MOS), could have described the use of hooah so well.

Getting the tone just right, a slow off-key rising pitch, is a form of art.

That said, I'll tell you any decent officer can see right through the bullshit hooah. You're only fooling yourself if you believe you conned him. He just decided to pick his battles and respond elsewhere, such as with your denied promotion.

It's both, actually. The Army & Marine Corps each has its own version of the word -- Marines say "oorah" (or "hoorah," like the article says, although I've never seen it spelled that way), while Army guys prefer "hooah."

US Marines say "Oorah!" Army says, "hoah" Navy says, "Hoyah" and Air Force says, "huh?".
I was a Marine in the initial invasion on '03. I was also a computer tech, I job duties included setting up LAN games and using my laptop and a projector to have a makeshift theater. The sand destroyed every single DVD I had out there. Yet another reason DVD copying should be legal. "Support the troops!"
Cpl. Roberts

Just out of curiosity, does the military enforce American copyright laws or stop file-sharing on its bases overseas? Would a soldier/marine/sailor be punished if they found pirate DVDs or music on him?

Just wondering 'cause I've heard how networked the military is these days...

I would think that those bases are treated as U.S. soil, and that all applicable laws would apply. There is a provision in the Uniform Code of Military Justice that allows a military member to be charged for crimes using civilian law.

Playstation 2s and desert sand do not mix. Their drives break anyway, but they do it a lot quicker out there. I was deployed last year as part of a combat communications squadron in the Air Force that was wannabe Army and got to see a whole bunch of PS2s break. A couple people brought Gamecubes. Obviously, those made it through gracefully.

I was in the Marines from 94-02. Me and all the Marines from my shop get together online and play socom. What is funny about it is that I play with guys I have never met, they just happen to work at the same unit I used to work at. Its like some sort of Bizarre Reunion. I esp. like hearing about pvts that I used to make clean urinals with toothbrushes and razor blades who are now Sgts and SSGts doing the same thing to new pvts. Good to know I raised them right.

...that I'm not the only Marine on the boards here. I'm an AMSU technician at NAS Fort Worth. Of course, I have ADD, so I've got 7 or 8 games going at once, but mainly GT3, polishing up my skills for GT4.

From reading these replies I'm beginning to think the military community on/. is composed entirely of marines and one air force who calls his own unit wannabe army. Though I can say from experience that I met more marines who played MUDs and D&D than any other branch. Some even openly.

Though you have to know there probably are hundreds of gamers in the air force who have read this story and chosen to continue to remain secret instead.

It seems like most of my fellow Air Force members that game seem to play MMOs, not FPSs. I have run into many folks on both FFXI and EQ2 that are on the Air side. I guess we just aren't the gung ho shoot em up types...which is why we constantly get shit from the other branches.